You watch a competitor roll out an AI phone system that answers calls, books appointments, and never puts a customer on hold. You assume they have an IT team behind it that you don’t have. Then you find out it’s a business roughly your size, running on a budget close to yours.
AI adoption among small businesses stopped being a “big-company privilege” a while ago. More small businesses now use AI than don’t, and that shift happened fast. Cost and access used to be the barrier. Now the real one is knowing how to put these tools to work without a technical team to manage them, and that’s where the real opportunity sits.
Is AI Only for Big Companies?
No, and the numbers back that up. Generative AI use among U.S. small businesses jumped from 23% in 2023 to 58% in 2025, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s C_TEC report¹, based on a survey of 3,870 companies with fewer than 250 employees. Technology, financial services, entertainment and media, education, health, medical, and pharmaceuticals lead adoption of AI among small business sectors.
Most small businesses can already get their hands on the technology. What trips them up is figuring out what to do with it once they have it.
Why Do Small Businesses Struggle to Scale AI?
Using a tool and running it well are two different things. A 2026 survey from Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Voices² found that 76% of small business owners are currently using AI, but only 14% say it’s fully embedded in their core operations.
A 2026 global study from SAS and IDC³, covering more than 1,600 SMB leaders, found that nearly 70% of small and midsized businesses remain stuck in the experimental or opportunistic stages of AI maturity.
Fragmented data, disconnected pilots, and limited internal skills stop most of them from turning early experiments into a repeatable process.
We’ve written before about how too many disconnected AI options can leave SMB owners stuck rather than moving forward. That paralysis often comes from the same root cause: not knowing where to start.
How Can Small Businesses Close the AI Skills Gap?
The standard approach in the market hands a small business a self-service AI tool and leaves configuration, integration, and troubleshooting entirely up to them. That’s exactly where the skills gap does the most damage, especially for teams without dedicated IT staff.
A better fit for most small businesses is a vendor that stays involved after deployment, handling the technical work instead of leaving it to a team that doesn’t have the bandwidth for it.
IPFone’s AI Voice Agents come with a team that handles setup and integration with your existing phone system from day one. If that’s what’s kept AI off your plate, request a quote to see how it works for your setup.
Sources
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce, C_TEC, “Empowering Small Business: The Impact of Technology on U.S. Small Business,” 2025. https://www.uschamber.com/assets/documents/20251621-CTEC-Empowering-Small-Business-Report-2025-v1-r10-Digital-FINAL.pdf
- Goldman Sachs, “Survey: Small Businesses Embrace AI — But Need Training and Support to Fully Harness It,” 2026. https://www.goldmansachs.com/pressroom/press-releases/2026/small-businesses-embrace-ai-but-need-training-and-support-to-fully-harness-it
- SAS and IDC, “AI for SMBs: Closing the Readiness-Reality Gap,” 2026. https://www.sas.com/en/offers/ai-readiness-report-for-small-and-midsize-businesses.html
Sol Narosky is a journalist and content marketing specialist with over six years of experience covering technology, innovation, and emerging digital trends.
